You could see this one coming. John Boehner empowered Mitch McConnell and Harry Reid to come up with a compromise on the payroll tax cut and other expiring measures which could break a filibuster in the Senate. They couldn’t get the full-year measure done, so they agreed to a two-month extension with a pay-for and an acceleration of the Keystone XL decision. So now Boehner had to go back to his caucus, with a deal he didn’t personally negotiate, to sell it to them. That sell didn’t go over well, with many House conservatives, including the other members of the leadership team, criticizing the deal.

Which Catholic Church did Newt Gingrich join?

I don’t think it takes much imagination to notice that our collective grasp of the real is not what it could be. If it were, the permafrost would not be thawing. “Grab this branch and never let go” is a consistent refrain in today’s public life. The last thing the powers want is a reinvigorated imaginative public bent on the re-enchantment of the world.

When we last saw neo-con nutball and Jenifer Rubin’s BFF Rachel Abrams, she was still publicly working out some of the kinks for her proposed Israeli/Palestinian two-state solution where the Israelis got to keep all of the land and the Palestinians would move to Waterworld where they would be welcomed as shark chum(s).

As is typical at the end of the year, Harry Reid attempted to clear out a backlog of uncontroversial Presidential appointments before the holiday break. But Mitch McConnell would not allow it. He wanted assurances, instead, that the President would not seek out any recess appointments during the break, and he objected to moving the outstanding nominees until that time.

This may come as a surprise, since throughout this year Republicans have been able to use pro forma sessions to never take Congress into recess, thereby blocking recess appointments. Indeed, that was the plan for this holiday break as well.

Bradley Manning’s Article 32 hearing or, as it is more generally called, pre-trial hearing resumes today with the government continuing to present the evidence it thinks it has to support the prosecution of Bradley Manning for allegedly leaking classified information to WikiLeaks.

Members of the prosecution include Captain Ashden Fein, Captain Joe Morrow and Captain Angel Overgaard. Members of the defense include Mr. David Coombs, Major Matthew Kemkes and Captain Paul Bouchard.

There is Sunday talking heads news, Christiane Amanpour will step down at ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous replacing her. Curious because Jack Tapper was not a bad substitute in the past.

Teddy sez:

Stretch Gregory has decided it’s simply unnecessary for him to have Democrats on his wee programme.

Romney’s going BACK on Fox?

Nice to see Evan Bayh settling into the Junior Lieberman role comfortably on FOX. Unlike Harold Ford, he’s actually held office in this millennium.

And from Scarecrow:

Ah, This Week is going to have a debate over whether there’s too much government. Clever choice. I suggest the next one be: Resolved: “The current Republican Party is a criminal enterprise funded to protect large corporations and further enrich the rich by looting the middle class and poor, but the Democratic Party has become too corrupt to prosecute them.” Discuss.

Bugs Bunny’s Christmas Carol. This DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and Warner Bros. Television cartoon is from the Christmas special, Bugs Bunny’s Looney Christmas Tales which aired on November 27, 1979 on CBS.

Today however, we have someone like Donald Trump claiming to be worth $7B, with $3B of that being his “brand.” Yeah, that’s right. The guy whose combover has been likened to a dead raccoon claims a worth nearly double the generous estimates provided by Forbes. I guess The Donald must subscribe to the “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” theory since a recent Fox Poll (via Media Matters) showed a Trump endorsement would be received positively by 6% of those polled versus negatively by 31% of those polled.

Obama should be in serious political trouble and to a degree he would be if the Republican nominee is Mitt Romney. According to the same poll in a hypothetical match-up it would be Obama 47 – Romney 46; but since this is a poll of all adults Romney would likely hold a modest edge among those likely to actually go vote.